Investigating the interconnection between literature and philosophy is significant in the literary studies of the XX century. The current research focuses on philosophical and moral aspects in “Under the Net” [1954], “The Flight from the Enchanter” [1956], “The Sandcastle” [1957], and “The Unicorn” [1963] by Booker Prize winner English novelist and philosopher Iris Murdoch. Murdoch wrote many works on philosophy concerning topics such as existential egoism (Sartre: Romantic Rationalist, 1953), morality and art (The Sublime and the Good, 1959), the problems of contemporary literature (Existentialists & Mystics, 1970), and the importance of Platonic form of love (The Sovereignty of Good, 1970). Besides, scholars like Maria Antonaccio [2000; 2012] and Peter Conradi [1997] contributed a lot to researching Murdoch with their books. These works have an essential role in interpreting her novels. The forms of love toward self and others, illusion and reality, human nature, and morality are her fiction's basis. In her novels, a reaction to Sartre’s philosophy of the lonely and free individual is distinguished. By creating certain prototypes of pseudo-characters like artist, saint, philosopher, and enchanter, Murdoch prefers saint figure as her ideal, which can challenge Sartre’s existential and outsider character in ethical questions. By typological character analysis of the above-mentioned novels, Murdoch’s philosophical concepts can be revealed. The research question investigates the transition from existentialism to neoplatonism through the inseparable interconnection between literature and philosophy. The audience, through their active engagement, will benefit from the range of philosophical inclinations Murdoch uses, which would help analyze contemporary literature semantically.

Authors:
Feruza Shapsanova, Uzbekistan State World Languages University, Uzbekistan

About the Presenter(s)
Feruza Shapsanova's current research has embraced philosophical tendencies in contemporary English literature with a special emphasis on existentialism and neoplatonism by investigating novelists such as Iris Murdoch, John Fowles, William Golding and poets like W.H. Auden, and Philip Larkin. Her general interests are literature studies on contemporary fiction, philosophical tendencies such as nihilism, existententialism, absurdism and neoplatonism and their connection with literature.

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